X-ray responses of human colon tumor cells grown in artificial capillary culture

Clone A human colon adenocarcinoma cells were grown in three-dimensional artificial capillary culture (ACC) to determine responses of capillaries treated 3 weeks after tumor cell inoculation with a specific, easily quantifiable cytotoxic agent, ionizing radiation. The high-density growth of tumor cells in ACC can be considered to be an in vitro analogue of a solid tumor. Changes in extracapillary space (ECS) fluid concentrations of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and aspartate aminotransferase (GOT) and the utilization of glucose in circulating medium were monitored after a supralethal radiation dose (90 Gy) of X-rays. Immediately after irradiation, increased levels of LDH and GOT were found that reached maximum levels about four to five times those found in nonirradiated control capillaries at 10-13 days post irradiation and then declined. Patterns of enzyme production appeared to correlate with the numbers of nonviable tumor cells collected from the ECS of the artificial capillaries. In contrast, glucose utilization showed little correlation with either enzyme concentration or dead cell production. It was determined that, while capillaries grown and treated in this manner appear to respond in a dose-dependent manner to ionizing radiation (as indicated by changes in LDH and GOT levels), these particular end points are relatively insensitive and are not suitable for studies in which therapeutic levels of X-radiation might be given. In other studies, tumor cells were removed from unirradiated capillaries by trypsinization and used to obtain complete survival curves after graded doses of X-radiation. The dose-response curves obtained indicate that clone A colon tumor cells grown in ACC show a marked decrease in their ability to accumulate sublethal radiation injury as compared to responses of these cells growing exponentially in asynchronous monolayer cultures, to synchronized mid-G1 tumor cells, or to tumor cells in stationary growth phase. These data suggest that ACC is a potentially useful model to study the effects of cytotoxic agents on human tumor cells.